Everything You Need To Know About Clothing!

Editorial by David Goliath

 This is David Goliath once again, although on a more serious note this time around. Today I have no smart-assery, or silly one-liners to unleash upon the unsuspecting, media-consuming masses, nope. Today I am here to help those of you who are in the clothing business.

In the past, my business tips have helped completely change the game for some clothing owners, and forever change a "set in stone" global top ten list. Although I may be guilty of overstating the influence I have had on an average manager's common knowledge, I can say that I have advised companies in the past that have incorporated my suggestions, and suddenly skyrocketed into the global clothing scene. I myself was once a noob clothing owner, and novice photoshopper... After collecting information about the system we all use, I quickly grew into the number one global clothing store for 4 straight months. It's not that I am any better than any other clothing owner either... There are guidelines I followed and with a little time and effort, anyone can master the clothing industry just the same.

I would like to give to the public a detailed strategy for success in the clothing industry. These are not just simple tips, or a tutorial on selling clothes...This is the holy grail of ancient clothing proverbs from the edges of the Tycooniverse. This will be a reference guide to all levels of clothing owner from first day empty shop owners, to global players, this will cover everything you need to know in the short and long term to comprehend the clothing system, and master it. 

Hype. Hype, among other variables, determines your store's ranking. More hype = higher citywide ranking. Stores are listed on Highstreet in the order in which they are ranked in their base city. Other things that effect the ranking of your store are sale numbers for the week, amount of cash inflow for the week, how many fighters mentioned your store after a win, how many fighters you have sponsored and how well they perform, and how well your partner organization's events are doing. When you sponsor a fighter, you gain a small amount of hype from them. If they win a fight and gain hype, your store gains with them. If your sponsored fighter loses and his hype takes a hit, so does your store. The strategy is to have a balance between sponsoring high ranked fighter to ensure a nice hype level, but also sponsor the small-time fighters who need your money the most. With enough good fighters winning fights, you can afford to sponsor many beginner fighters, which eventually will change for them with training and your sponsor money. NEVER just go with all big time fighters, as you are not contributing to your cities well being, only your own personal agenda...

The object or point? Debatable at best, as there are many opinions on "the point "of a clothing store, but one thing we all agree on is making money. Selling clothes, and making money. Here are the things you need to know about the system we use...

Free market.  It's just like owning a real business. (in America, 90% of all brand new small businesses fail within the first 3 years) You start out with nothing. You have no clothing, no company logo, no customers... You literally have to create your own clothing by downloading templates from the "create new designs" section of your store manager menu, or track down some original templates, create the best designs you can and host them in your shop at an affordable price. Its a free market so the better the designs and price, the more customers you build. I.M.O., no regular clothing item is worth more than $25...and only that high if its a design that took you hours, and speaks for itself. Normally everything is $20 and under. It's just like opening a real business...you have to have a reason fighters choose your clothing store over others, when they all have the same quality items which is 150. Make it look good, and make it affordable. 

Some ways to boost sales and build up customer loyalty are...
Make a partnership with a young org. very early, so both your companies grow together, and you can build a history with them. You can serve the fighters of just a few orgs in your city, supplying custom clothing exclusive to those orgs... offer discounts to fighters in those orgs, and always sponsor their fighters. You will grow with the org, and as time goes on, a majority of those fighters will shop at your store exclusively... This can become quite a high number of regular customer if you do fair business, and be polite, while serving the needs of the fighters. With customer loyalty, you can have success with only one org in a verbal partnership. Starting a merch. partnership with an org is a great way to really cement this verbal agreement, and earn your store some cash without an inventory loss... but more on that later. Treat all these fighters with respect, and listen to their needs, do your best to make everyone happy. Over time these customers have seen your name around a million times, and always have a nice exchange with you when they come in contact with you, they will always buy your clothes and support your store. After a good relationship is established with an org you will have steady sales. Always update your items with new stuff monthly, while lowering prices on older, slower moving items. You now have a financially successful store that is sustainable and in the green. 

Sales tips
  -Make sure to have a good variety in both styles and price. Stock items that anyone can afford, regular prices items, and premium items. The more selection available in your store, the more fighters you can appeal to.
  -Offer a "no profit" item set, such as an outfit that is priced at $4.50 an item. This will boost sales, but not income. Its a good thing to make your 500 sales for the week, and to serve the non-vip managers with clothing.
  -Make the best designs that you can. Pay attention to which ones move fast, and which ones sit around. You can order less of the slow items, or put them on sale, while ordering more of the popular ones. Sometimes even removing an item if no one buys it. You can only display 75 items in your store, and only order 3500 units per month, so make wise choices on spreading out your orders to last the whole month.
  -Offer sponsorships to all the fighters in your partner org...always serve their needs, sometimes even getting the owner to post a survey in the smack talk thread asking what the fighters want in their store. Support their events, and offer additional bonuses for good fights.
-Always take care of the non-vip guys that come in. One day when they buy VIP, they will remember when they lived off of your sponsorships, and this creates customer loyalty.

Other ways to make money with a clothing store...   Custom designs. Learn photoshop and start making custom images for your customers...It pays very well, and honestly a store cannot get ahead without selling the occasional item.Some of the big time stores actually start a thread in the forums offering to make custom items while including examples of their work. This is like using Craigslist. If you have good work and it's cheap compared to the competition you will get tons of orders, as there is always plenty of people in need of work. A good display in the forums can make you more money in a year than all your clothing sales combined. 

Some guidelines for pricing are...
  -Logos... 7k for a new company. It can go higher depending upon the satisfaction of the customer. That price includes a 100x50 thumbnail, a 205x175 logo, and a 468x60 banner. 3 piece setup for a new company.
  -Championship belts...3k - 5k depending on satisfaction.
-Event posters...2k - 3k depending on satisfaction. If you verbally agree to make "X" amount of posters for an org, you can charge a little more this way, as long as you hold up to your end of the bargain.
-Fighter skins...5k for 20 sets is the lowest I would go. This is the market that's full of wealthy managers who want the perfect skin for their best fighter...If you can make a skin to please a guy like this, he will pay 25k willingly...but you have to be very impressive as there are many great artists in this game, and some of them are professional level legendary designers. In the beginning, keep things cheap, around 5k for 20 sets at . Try increasing price based off of how good you think it is compared to others you have done. Once you are real good, you can tell them that "we will talk about price once I show you the finished skin". If you are very impressive, guys will pay prices that some managers wouldn't believe. Not only that, they will come back for more and bring friends with them. A great designer can make 1 million plus a year just from custom skin sales. It's all resting on how good you are, and your price. Always offer to add additional sets to your standard 20, adding about 1k to the total price for every 20 sets added. Sometimes even offer lifetime refills on sets to those customers who deserve YOUR loyalty. I was once offered 30k for 40 sets and lifetime refills. 

Advertising... Just like in real life business, you have to advertise your store. It is not a must, but when you first start out, it is a great way to familiarize your city with your store and make people curious about what you offer. There are many small ways to advertise. Placing your store logo on your forum avatar picture is a good one, as well as a banner on your forum posts. There is a whole other world in the forums, and it is a very busy place, full of mangers who love to read. If your posts have your store's logo on it, you can get the name out there very well. Another way you can advertise is something I invented...Store circulars updated at least monthly. Any more than monthly is bothersome and rude I.M.O. so don't push it. Write a commercial for your store taking whatever angle you choose whether it be funny, serious, or to the point about new items or sales. Update your stock every month and mention this to your customers, but always find an entertaining way to get your point across. This makes you stick in their mind, and keeps customers shopping...If you have a strong partnership with your org, and you have built a lot of customer loyalty with it's fighters, then one email a month form the org owner posting your circular is all you really need to do. Just like with designs, the better you write, the more reaction you get in your store. If you have a long time, great relationship with an org's fighters, and your circular is actually enjoyable to read, people will shop your store just because they laughed their asses off at your advertising circular. If your writing sucks and you haven't built any customer loyalty, then this is actually spam, and can annoy your customers and have a bad reaction in your shop. Its a fine line to walk, but believe me, done correctly this method can make you a favorite shop in your city, and create lifetime customers who love your designs, and your ads. Be careful though, I wouldn't advertise to an org's fighters unless at least 30% of your total inventory is dedicated to that org. If your shop is partially dedicated to a certain org, then you have to serve those fighters well and advertise to them. Unless you make big contributions to that org, and are actively helping those fighters become successful, there is no reason to even ask an org owner to post your ad to his fighters. You have to have serious writing skills, or pay someone for their writing skills otherwise its a waste of time. When used correctly though, this can double your sales, and also creates customer loyalty and repeat business. Post these ads into your "Latest News" box inside your manager view on your store, also adding these ads to your official store forum thread. People appreciate multi-talented artists.

500 week sales and managing inventory...
A 500 sales week means that from last Sunday to this Sunday you sold over 500 items. This is a good sales week by game standards, and the system keeps track of how many 500 sales weeks you have had. You get a trophy on your manager profile for 5, 500 weeks...a silver at 25, 500 weeks, and a gold at 50 500 weeks. The problem is you sometimes run through your monthly ordering cap and end up with the last week of the month selling nothing and losing ranking. You have to ration out your stock for the month. You want to shoot for around 700 to 800 items sold each week of the month. This way, you get 4 weeks of 500 sales out of every month, and you never have empty shelves. start by ordering only 20 units of each item in the beginning, keeping a daily tab on sales so you can restock without getting caught with an empty shelf. If you have a minimal amount of items in your store, then you can save money by ordering in bulk. Personally, i can't do this because I sell out by the third week each month, so I have to save back orders to replenish hot items and save some orders for skinwork. It's just something you have to keep an eye on. In the beginning its probably safe to order 150 units of each item, saving some orders to replenish things that sell out.

Laundry...
Laundry is a great way to boost sales and cash inflow, while doing a favor that customers appreciate. The new cash transfer tool has lowered the need for laundry, but there is always someone who wants to move a big amount of money while avoiding the 10% fee the tool charges. This fee goes into the system and not into the economy so, it's not helping anyone at all...why not pay it to a trusted store owner...
Laundry is placing an item in your store priced at the maximum $300. A few hundred of these can be bought by fighters who want to move their money to their manager's account. Customers simply buy $300 items from you until they have spent what they need to move, then ask you for a bookie sale to get it back. You can start a bookie company and place their money into the bookie account, while offering a direct sale of the bookie to that manager for $1. Normally you charge a fee for moving money...it is totally legal in game so don't be scared when you hear Money Laundry...It is a public service. Most managers charge between 10 and 15% to launder money, although it is more appealing to your customers if you do it under 10%. It is also doing your city a service to launder money for preferred customers at no cost. Many owners like to make a 160x160 item for the store, that portrays what it is used for on it, and placed at the top of your store display for easy use and recognition. Something like money soap, money cleanser, laundry, whatever you think looks good. You may not get very many guys wanting to launder money, so never over-order your money soap item. Start at around 150 to 200 units, and see how far that gets you into the month. High volume stores may need as much as 1000 units of laundry items to keep up with demand.

Special agreements and promotions...
One last thing that can help the success of your store is special promotion. This is the term I have given to a verbal agreement with an org to sponsor a big event...This normally involved offering cash and/or free gear to stand-out performers of the event. You can add cash and/or items onto the already in place "Of The Night" awards, or even come up with your own. For example I used to run an offer where I wanted the event to get a high rating so I offered big cash to fastest knockout of the night winner...most strikes landed in a fight...even every fighter who finishes in the first round. This can motivate fighters to have exciting fights and also builds your brand name...further supporting your city's fighters. When running a promotion like this its a good idea to ask about placing your store logo on their event poster, and announcing to the fighters the awards that you are offering. Sponsor some big events and your name gets around pretty well. Before you know it orgs are asking you to sponsor their event, and they will promote the hell out of your store for helping them out.

Merchandise partnerships...
There is a new feature for clothing designers that allows you to choose a fight organization, and offer them a partnership deal to sell your store's merchanise at their events. It is fairly new, but here is what I have learned through reading and experience. You gain hype along with the org. If their event does well and they gain hype, so does your store. It's just like sponsored fighter's hype effecting yours. The bigger the org.(as far as ranking, and successful events) the more hype bonus you gain from them. Same for them, the higher ranking clothing stores provide a larger hype boost to the org. Try to sign with the biggest org in your city that you can. Maybe start the offer at 60/40 split in their favor to make the deal attractive to bigger orgs. You can set the contract for as long as you wish, spliting the money however you specify. What governs your sales numbers at a certain event is the attendance. It is possible that other factors about the event effect your sales at that event, especially advertising money spent, but a majority of what governs your merch sales at an event is the attendance. Go with an org that has high rated events twice a week and you can make some big money! The best part is these sales do not effect your limited stock supply. These figures simply auto-generate when an event is over, and the cash is added to your company account without taking any inventory out of your store. This is very helpful with smaller clothing companies, giving them the ability to sponsor fighters for hype, and give charity to the needy fighters. It is not unusual to make 20k from your 40% cut from one event. Use this new feature. Partner up with an org and make some extra money, but choose wisely because although you cannot lose money on the deal, you can waste your time with orgs that have lazy owners...or those that consistantly have low event ratings.

These are the ins and outs of the clothing business as I see it. Others will have different opinions on all subjects I have covered, but there is always more than one way to do things right in the tycooniverse. These are strategies that have worked for me, and have been tested time and time again. Feel free to use this editorial to guide your path as a clothing owner, or even make up your own methods and strategies for success with clothing. The beautiful part of it is, there are no rules. Make your own if you wish, and become the next big clothing company that are doing things in a different way.

Any way you look at it, one thing we all can agree on at the highest level of clothing is...Always treat your customers with respect, and fulfill their needs. Make them happy. If you have to go load up photoshop and make one dinky little change to an item that a customer has requested, then do it. Never half-ass your customers, and always make them happy. Be helpful to the noobs, as you may be the means to increasing their game experience and cause them to buy VIP time. Always provide cash to the small time fighters, and all non-vip mngrs as this is an unspokan rule among those of us at the top, and it promotes growth of the game itself, and creates customer loyalty. Your reputation will grow with your deeds, however slowly. Never do bad business, never break an agreement, and always make the customer happy with the item and price. If you practice this in every transaction you do, your company will only grow, and get the attention of other big fighters and managers...which is where you want to be. Earn respect through good and fair business and you cannot fail...unless your designs suck, lol.

One last thing, if your designs suck, just price them really cheap and keep practicing. Look around the tycooniverse at other successful stores and see whats popular, or get an idea of a new method to try. You may want to give some attention to google and look for photoshop tricks and tips that can help you along your way. There are many great designers in this game and they have set most of the current trends...There is no shame in gaining inspiration from their designs as long as you don't copy the design, and make it different in your own style. Practice until you are making better designs...go look up real life shirts for ideas...The goal is to come up with an original design that is hot and only available at your store. Be patient...Like everything else in this game, it all comes in good time, although you can shoot up the rankings overnight following these guidelines.   I hope this helps out as many clothing owners as I can possibly reach. If you are a noob and have additional questions, please feel free to mail my inbox and I will get back to you shortly. Good luck managers! I hope I have been helpful!   David Goliath - Owner/founder of Smashwear clothing, producer/co-host of MMATycoon Radioshow 2.0, top skin artist, editor of Tycoon Times, man of the people, Martian citizen.

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